LC 


UC-NRLF 


bfl    Mbfi 


/O' 


NEW  YORK  CITY  COUNCIL 

POLITICAL    REFORM. 


REPORT 


COMPULSORY  EDUCATION, 


DKXTKR    A.  HAWKINS 


UKK    30,    18/3. 


VORK: 
!•:  V  !•'  N  I  N  ( i      POST     S  'I  K  A  M     P  R  I-  S  S  E  S 


LC-sM 


Education  perpetuates  a  Free  State ;  decreases  pauperism 
and  crime;  and  doubles  the  value  of  the  citizen. 


E  I»  O  R  T 


COMMITTEE    ON  EDUCATION 


New  I*t  til 

COMPULSORY    .EDUCATION. 


In  a  Democratic  Republic  like  ours,  whore  all  political  power 
*  resides  in  and  springs  from  the  people  ;  where,  to  use  the 

language  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  "  the  government  is  of  the  people, 
for  the  people,  and  by  the  people,'  no  subject  can  be  presented 

to  the  citizens  for  their  consideration  more  important  than  the 

education  of  the  youth. 

UNIVERSAL  EDUCATION  ESSENTIAL  TO  FBEE  GOVERNMENT. 

Intelligence  in  the  rulers  is  essential  to  good  government ; 
with  us  the  rulers  are  the  voters,  hence  the  necessity  of  fitting 
them  by  education  to  rule.  With  intelligent  voters,  our  form 
of  government  is  the  best  yet  devised  ;  but  with  ignorant  voters, 
it  is  one  of  the  worst.  An  intelligent  people  seek  freedom, 
and  an  ignorant  one  despotism,  just  as  naturally  and  certainly 
as  the  needle  points  to  the  magnetic  pole. 

The  founders  of  our  free  institutions  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago  saw  this,  and  scarcely  had  they  completed  the  log 
cabins  for  their  families,  when  they  began  the  log  school-house 
for  the  school  and  school-master. 

The  school-house  has  spread,  developed  and  improved  from 
Maine  to  California  equally  with  the  dwelling-house.  It  is  the 
nursery  of  American  citizens, 


M49815 


2 

THREE  CARDINAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  AMERICAN  LIBERTY. 

These  three  cardinal  principles  our  forefathers  never  lo- 
.sight  of,,  viz.,  a  free  State,  a  free  School,   and  a  free  Chi 

ipji  imposes  upon  our  government,  the  duty 
the  people  sufficiently  to  qualify  them  to  ex< 
e' right  of  suffrage.     Conscious  of  this,  every 
State  established  a  system  of  free  schools. 

So  great  and  beneficent  has  been  their  influence  upou 
people,  that  the  material  prosperit}',  intellectual   and  moral 
development,   respect   for   law   and   obedience   to  it,  in 
State,  may  be  relatively  measured  and  calculated  by  the  con- 
dition of  the  free  public  schools. 

WHAT   THE   NATIONAL   GOVERNMENT   IS   DOING   FOR  EDUCATK 

The  National  Government  has  already  set  aside  for  ec 
tional  purposes  one  hundred  and  forty  millions  (140,000,0( 
acres  of  publiclandj^  and  the  question  of  devoting  to  educ; 
thlTwhole  proceeds  of  the  public  lands  still  undisposed  of,  is  dis 
cussed.     In  the  last  Congress  the  Committee  on  Education  and 
Labor  in  the  House  of  [Representatives,  reported  favorably  a 
bill  for  this  purpose,  and  after  a  careful  debate  and  consi< 
tion,  it  passed  that  body  and  was  sent  to  the  Senate.     II 
established  a  Bureau  of  Education  as  a  permanent   part  ol 
the  Government,  with  a  Commissioner  of  Education  at  its  ] 
His  annual  report   is  one  of  the  most  interesting,  instru< 
valuable  and  important  documents  that  issues  from  the  Go 
ment  press.      Every  legislator   and  evert/    school  officer  ii 
United  States  should  study  it*  contents  and  heed  its  facts. 

MAGNITUDE   OF   THE   SCHOOL   INTEREST. 

(1.)— In  the  Nation. 

We  have  in  the  United  States  over  fourteen  and  a  half 
lions  (14,500,000)  of  children  of  the  school  age  ;   we  expend  an- 
nually for  schools  over  ninety-five  millions  (95,000,000)  of  dollar! 
which  is  equal  to  one-third  of  one  per  cent,  of  the  value  of  tho 
property,  real  and  personal,  of1,  the  whole  country,  asreti 
by  the  last  census;  and  we  employ  two  hundred  and  tw 
one  thousand  (221,000)  teacherk     This  is  our  sending  ,• 
and  those  are  our  raw  recruits.!    Their  arms   OVA  flio  i^-,  ,lll( 


the  slate  pencil ;  their  munitions  of  war  the  text-books  ;  their 
forts  and  arsenals  the  school-houses  ;  and  the  enemy  they  are 
enlisted  to  conquer,  ignorance  and  bigotry.  Through  the 
munificence  of  the  Government,  the  finest  building  that  springs 
up  in  every  village  in  our  new  States  and  Territories  is  the 
public  school-house.  Like  the  light  of  heaven  and  the  water 
of  the  earth,  it  is  open  and  free  alike  to  rich  and  poor. 

(2.)— In  lite  Sk'le  of  Ncic  York. 

In  the  State  of  New  York  we  have  one  million  and  a  half 
(1,500,000)  school  children,  twenty-eight  thousand  (28,000) 
school  teachers,  twelve  thousand  (12,000)  school-houses,  and 
one  million  (1,000,000)  volumes  of  books  in  the  school  district 
libraries.  The  school  property  of  the  State  is  worth  tAventy- 
seven  millions  of  dollars  ($27,000,000,)  and  we  are  expending 
two  million  dollars  ($2,000,000 )  a  year  to  add  to  it  and  improve 
it.  The  law  in  the  State  of  New  York  requires  us  to  raise  an- 
nually one  and  one-quarter  of  a  mill  tax  upon  each  dollar  of 
valuation  of  taxable  property,  for  the  support  of  the  free 
schools.  This  amounts  to  two  and  a  half  millions  of  dollars. 
But  so  fully  is  the  value  of  the  schools  appreciated  that  the 
people  voluntarily  tax  themselves  annually  four  times  this 
amount,  making  the  whole  sum  spent  upon  schools  in  this 
State  ten  millions  of  dollars  ($10,000,000)  a  year. 

This  is  called  the  "  Empire  State."  So  long  as  we  continue 
this  liberal  policy  of  education  for  the  whole  people  it  will  re- 
main such. 

The  canal  interest,  the  railroad  interest,  the  manufacturing 
interest,  important  as  they  are  to  material  progress,  are  yet 
small  compared  with  the  education  of  our  million  and  a  half 
of  youth. 

(3.)— In  the  City  of  New  York. 

The  city  of  New  York  had,  last  year,  over  two  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  (230,000)  pupils  in  its  schools.  It  employed 
three  thousand  (3,000)  teachers  and  school  officers,  and  ex- 
pended upon  public  education  three  millions  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars  ($3,300,000.)  The  citizen,  however  humble, 
has  only  to  send  his  child  to  the  public  school,  and  Government 
furnishes  him,  there  free  of  cost,  an  educational  palace,  warmed 


and  lighted,  the  best  text-books  and  apparatus,  and  the  most 
skillful  teachers. 

Stewart  and  Astor,  with  their  hundred  millions  of  property 
and  no  children  in  the  public  schools,  like  true-hearted  Ameri- 
can citizens,  gladly  pay  the  school  taxes  that  educate  the  sons 
and  daughters  of  thousands  of  poor  laborers  who  have  no 
property  to  be  taxed.  Aided  by  the  free  school,  the  greatest 
wealth  and  the  highest  honors  and  offices  in  this  broad  land 
are  within  the  reach  of  the  sons  of  the  humblest  workman. 

THE  PROPERTY  SHOULD  EDUCATE  THE  CHILDREN. 

The  American  doctrine  is,  that  "  the  property  of  the  State  shall 
educate  the  children  of  the  State."  This  benefits  equally  the  rich 
and  the  poor.  It  decreases  crime,  reduces  taxes,  improves  labor, 
increases  the  value  of  property,  and  elevates  the  whole  com- 
munity. One  of  the  first  and  decisive  questions  asked  in  seek- 
ing a  permanent  location  for  one's  family  is ;  "What  are  the 
means  provided  for  education  ?  A  village,  town  or  State,  with 
good  free  schools,  is  the  resort  of  families ;  without  them  it  is 
the  home  of  criminals. 

In  this  city  it  costs  more  to  support  police  and  police  courts 
to  restrain  and  punish  a  few  thousand  criminals,  nearly  all  of 
whom  became  such  from  want  of  education,  than  to  educate 
our  230,000  children. 

CRIME  THE  CONSEQUENCE  OF  IGNORANCE. 

In  France,  from  1867  to  1869,  one  half  the  inhabitants  could 
neither  read  nor  write  ;  and  this  one-half  furnished  ninety-five 
per  cent,  of  the  persons  arrested  for  crime,  and  eighty-seven 
per  cent,  of  those  convicted.  In  other  words,  an  ignorant  per- 
son, on  the  average,  committed  seven  times  the  number  of 
crimes  that  one  not  ignorant  did.], 

In  the  six  New  England  States  of  our  own  country  only  seven 
per  cent,  of  the  inhabitants,  above  the  age  of  ten  years,  can 
neither  read  nor  write,  yet  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  crime  in  those 
States  is  committed  by  this  small  minority ;  in  other  words,  a 
person  there  without  education  commits  fifty-three  times  as 
many  crimes  as  one  with  education. 

In  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  an  ignorant  person  commits 
on  the  average  seven  times  the  number  of  crimes  that  one  who 
can  read  and  write  commits,  and  in  the  whole  United  States 


the  illiterate  person  commits  ten  times  the  number  of  crimes 
that  the  educated  one  does. 

The  above  facts  are  derived  from  official  statistics. 

THE   SCHOOL  THE   PREVENTIVE  OF  CRIME. 

We  may  have  supposed  that  it  is  the  churches  rather  than 
the  schools  that  prevent  people  from  becoming  criminals,  but 
the  facts  indicated  by  statistics  collected  by  government  show 
the  contrary. 

The  kingdom  of  Bavaria  examined  this  question  in  1870.  In 
Upper  Bavaria  there  were  15  churches  and  5}2  school-houses  to 
each  one  thousand  buildings,  and  667  crimes  to  each  one  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants.  In  Upper  Fran  coma  the  ratio  was  5 
churches,  7  school-houses  and  444  crimes.  In  Lower  Bavaria 
the  ratio  was  10  churches  and  4|  school-houses  and  870  crimes. 
In  the  Palatinate  the  ratio  was  4  churches,  11  school-houses 
and  only  425  crimes,  or  less  than  one-half.  In  the  Lower  Pala- 
tinate the  ratio  was  11  churches,  6  school-houses,  and  690 
crimes,  while  in  Lower  Franconia  the  ratio  was  5  churches,  10 
school-houses,  and  only  384  crimes. 

Tabulated  for  clearness  of  comparison,  it  is  as  follows  : 


Per  1,000 

Buildings. 

Per  100,0  00 
Souls. 

Churches. 

School 
Houses. 

Crimes. 

15 

i* 

667 

5 

7 

444 

10 

4* 

870 

The  Palatinate   

4 

11 

425 

11 

6 

690 

Lower  Franconia  

5. 

10 

384 

i  short,  it  seems  that  crime  decreases  almost  in  the  same 
ratio  that  schools  increase,  while  more  or  less  ^lurches  seem 
in  Bavaria  to  produce  very  little  effect  upon  it. 

Those  unerring  guides  of  the  statesman — statistics — demon- 
strate that  the  most  economical,  effective  and  powerful  pre- 


ventive  of  crime  is  the  free  common  school.  Universal  educa- 
tion tends  to  universal  morality. 

THE  SCHOOL  THE  PREVENTIVE  OF  PAUPERISM. 

An  examination  of  the  statistics  of  England,  Scotland,  Ire- 
land, and  of  the  different  countries  of  Europe,  indicate  that, 
other  things  being  equal,  pauperism  is  in  the  inverse  ratio  of 
the  education  of  the  mass  of  the  people ;  that  is,  as  education 
increases,  pauperism  decreases,  and  as  education  decreases, 
pauperism  increases.  The  same  rule  holds  good  in  our  country. 

Taking  the  three  States  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Illinois 
for  illustration,  we  find  that  of  the  illiterate  persons  one  in  ten  is 
a  pauper;  while  of  the  rest  of  the  population  only  one  in  three 
hundred  is  a  pauper.  In  other  words,  a  given  number  of  per- 
sons suffered  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  furnish  on  the  average 
thirty  times  as  many  paupers  as  the  same  persons  would  if 
required  to  get  such  an  education  as  our  free  public  schools 
afford.  Add  to  this  that  they  furnish  also  ten  times  the  number 
of  criminals,  and  the  right  as  well  as  the  duty  of  Government, 
as  the  protector  of  society,  to  enforce  general  education  is 
clear,  for  it  is  the  plain  obligation  of  Government  to  protect 
society  against  pauperism  and  crime. 

EDUCATION,   THEN,   SHOULD   BE   COMPULSORY. 

Government  should  prevent  both  crime  and  pauperism  by 
extirpating  the  cause  of  each,  to  wit,  ignorance. » An  educated 
citizen  is  of  more  value  to  himself,  to  society,  and  to  the  coun- 
try than  an  ignorant  one.  I 

/  An  examination  covering  prominent  points  or  centres  of 
labor  in  twenty  States,  made  three  years  ago,  developed  the 
fact  that  even  such  education  as  our  free  common  schools 
afford,  adds  on  the  average  fifty  per  cent,  to  the  producing 
capacity  of  the  citizen  ;  while  a  higher  training  increases  it  two 
or  three  hundred  per  cent.  I 

He  can  do  more  and  better  work,  from  the  street  scavenger 
up  to  the  most  skilled  mechanic,  with  the  same  expenditure  of 
time  and  force,  from  the  mere  fact  of  possessing  knowledge. 
\  A  well-educated  commonwealth,  however  narrow  its  borders 
or  poor  its  soil,  soon  becomes  rich  and  powerful  I  while  an 
ignorant  one,  even  under  the  happiest  circumstances  of  land 
and  sky,  falls  a  prey  to  anarchy,  poverty  and  despotism. 


Government  is  making  ample  provision  for  the  secular 
education  of  all.  Has  it  not  a  right,  then,  to  require  all  to  le 
educated,  either  in  the  public  schools  at  public  expense,  or  in 
private  schools  at  private  expense  ?  We  think  it  has,  and  that 
secular  education  sufficient  for  the  common  affairs  of  every-day 
life,  and  to  enable  the  citizen  to  vote  with  intelligence,  should 
be  compulsory. 

Prussia  and  many  other  German  States  have  tried  it  for 
years,  with  the  happiest  results.  It  is  her  vigorous  system  of 
compulsory  education  that  in  sixty  years  has  raised  her  from  a 
bankrupt  and  conquered  petty  kingdom  to  the  ruling  empire 
of  Europe,  and  made  her  the  seat  and  home  of  intelligence, 
industry  and  wealth.  Boston  has  had  such  a  law  for  twenty 
years,  and  in  the  last  ten  they  have  reduced  truancy  from 
school  sixty  per  cent.  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island  and  Michigan  have  now  adopted  it.  England  has  given 
her  school  boards  power  to  adopt  it,  and  in  London  they  have. 
The  effect  is  to  increase  the  attendance  at  school,  and  decrease 
the  number  of  juvenile  delinquents.  The  time  has  arrived 
to  try  the  experiment  in  the  cities  of  our  State  at  least,  if  not 
in  the  whole  State.  This  will  cause  every  child  to  enjoy  the 
benefits  of  the  public  school,  or  of  some  private  school. 

"Wherever  compulsory  attendance  has  been  tried  long 
enough  to  determine  its  effect,  the  result  has  been  so  satisfac- 
tory that  it  has  become  a  fixed  and  settled  policy.  Prussia, 
Saxony  and  Democratic  Switzerland  testify  to  its  excellence. 
It  is  in  harmony  with  the  true  spirit  of  a  Democratic  Rapub- 
lic  to  require  every  citizen  to  qualify  himself  for  the  right  of 
suffrage  and  for  earning  an  independent  living. 

The  taxpayers  who  furnish  the  money  to  educate  all  the 
people  have  a  right  to  require  thai  all  diall  le  educated,  in  order 
that  crime  and  pauperism,  and  the  public  burdens  caused  by 
the  same  may  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  the  ballot  wield- 
ed only  by  intelligent  voters. 

J  The  ballot,  in  the  hands  of  a  corrupt  and  ignorant  populace, 
is_the  torch  of  the  political  incendiary  ;  but  with  an  intelli- 
gent people  is  the  bulwark  of  liberty.  \ 

"  An  ounce  of  preventive  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure."  It  costs 
far  less  to  prevent  crime,  pauperism  and  civil  commotions,  by 


8 

educating  the  whole  people,  than  it  does  to  punish  crin 
support  paupers  and  maintain  armies  to  repress  an  igr 
and  vicious  population. 

The  average  daily  attendance  in  this  State  upon  the 
schools  during  the  school  year  is  only  about  one-third 
whole  school  population;  and  upon  all  schools,  public  ai 
vate,  it  is  only  about  one-half. 

The  class  most  in  need  of  school  training  seldom 
school  at  all,  to  wit,  those  whose  parents,  through  ignc 
poverty,  avarice  or  crime,  give  them  little  or  no  home  edu< 
This  class  can  be  reached  only  by  the  aid  of  a  compulsoi 
searching  statute.  Every  other  remedy  has  been  tried  ^ 
curing  the  disease. 

By  a  judicious  law,  firmly  but  kindly  enforced,  compell 
tendance  during  school  hours  upon  some  school,  either 
or  private,  the  streets  of  our  large  cities  could  be  cleared 
thousands  of  youthful  vagrants  from  whose  ranks  now  oui 
of  criminals  is  almost  entirely  recruited.  Such  a  law  in 
gle  generation  would  work  a  moral  and  intellectual  refor; 
and  regeneration  of  our  criminal  and  pauper  classes,  an 
millions  of  money  in  the  departments  of  police,  chariti 
corrections,  and  largely  increase  the  wealth,  influence  ai:<l  pro- 
ducing power  of  the  State. 

The  wisdom  of  developing  and  perfecting  our  free  sch 
admitted  by  the  great  majority  of  the  community.  A 
minority  oppose  them  on  the  ground  that  their  religion 
specially  and  authoritatively  taught  therein. 

OUR  GOVERNMENT  CANNOT  AND  SHOULD  NOT  TEACH  HE 

Our  Government  cannot  give  religious  education  ;  b 
while  protecting  each  citizen  in  the  undisturbed  enjoyment  of 
his  own  religion,  as  a  sacred  matter  between  him  and  his 
and  thus  tolerating  all  religions,  it  has  none  of  its  own  ai 
not  favor  any  sect  or  domination  or  class. 

The  whole  letter  and  spirit  of  the  constitution  of  the  '• 
States  as  well  as  of  the  several  States,  prohibits  the  est 
meiit  either  directly  or  indirectly  of  a  State  Eeligion  : 
showing  any  favor  or  giving  any  protection,  privileges,  o: 
cial  support  to  one   religious  sect  more  than  to  another. 


teclioii  to  att equally, but  support  to  none,  is  on  this  point,  the  organic 
low  of  Ameri    . 

If  the  Churches  would  not  interfere  with  the  Government's 
secular  education,  but  would  devote  the  whole  of  their  strength 
to  giving,  in  their  own  places  and  manner,  religious  education, 
they  and  the  Government,  though  working  in  different  spheres 
and  in  different  buildings,  would  act  in  entire  harmony,  and 
would  in  the  end  produce  the  best  possible  general  result. 
By  simply  protecting  religion,  but  not  teaching  it,  Government 
is,  as  matter  of  fact,  giving  the  utmost  genuine  vitality  and 
strength  to  the  religious  element : 

BUT  ONE  SECT  OPPOSED  TO  FREE  SCHOOLS. 

This  American  doctrine  of  free  non-sectarian  schools  is  sub- 
stantially accepted  and  adopted  by  all  religious  sects  save  one. 
That  one,  however,  is  large,  enthusiastic,  well  drilled  and  ably 

powerfully  led;  and  though  its  members  are. chiefly  of 
foreign  birth,  yet,  having  become  citizens,  they  are  entitled  to 
the  same  voice  .  1  rights  and  privileges  as  natives  are  in  this 

or.  The  le,  ler  of  this  sect,  though  a  foreign  ruler,  has 
ordered  the  des'  uction  of  our  free  non-sectarian  sj'stem  of 
popular  education,  and  the  substitution  of  his  own  system  of 
church  or  parochial  schools,  that  is  schools  whose  text-books 

(eachers  are  selected,  appointed  and  controlled  by  the 
Church,  though  the  State  may  be  permitted  to  pay  all  the  bills. 
In  the  city  of  New  York,  through  State  and  municipal  legisla- 
tion, the  following  amounts  of  money  were  obtained  in  the  last 
uvo  years  from  the  public  treasury  for  sectarian  institutions, 
such  as  churches,  church  schools,  and  church  charities,  viz.  : 

'767,815  of  which  this  one  sect  received  $651,191 

...  861,326  "            711,436 

,   634,088  "            552,718 

1872......     419,849  "                            252,110 

1873 324,284  "            306,193 


Total  1,017,362  "       $2,473,648 

If  this  is  a  better  system  than  ours,  we  should  adopt  it,  for 
we  want  the  best ;  but  if  it  is  a  worse,  we  should  reject-  it. 


10 

V    I  III     IMfllUlinilHl   '"'  I  I"    PRODUCES   MORE   ILLITERATES,    PAUPERS 
....   AND   CRIMINALS  THAN   OURS. 

It  lias  been  tried  for  centuries  ;  and  in  some  countries,  as 


Italy  and  Spain,  under  the  most  favorable  auspices,  for 

this  sect  has  had  despotic  power,  both  civil  and  religious,  and  1 

so  could  carry  its  system  out  to  its  highest  perfection. 

What,  then,  are  its  fruits?  We  may  say,  its  necessary  and 
inevitable  fruits  ?  By  its  fruits  it  should  be  judged.  They  are 
as  follows  : 

(1.)  A  highly  educated  few  ;  but  among  the  masses  general 
ignorance,  instead  of  general  enlightenment. 

(2.)  A  low  grade  of  morality. 

(3.)  A  large  pauper  and  criminal  class. 

(4.)  A  tendency  to  despotism  and  to  official  selfishness  and 
corruption. 

(5.)  A  lack  of  national  progress  and  development. 

These  statements  are  made,  first  from  a  personal  knowledge 
of  the  facts  gained  by  investigation  in  those  countries  —  having 
visited  them  before  they  rejected  that  system,  for  the  purpose 
of  studying  this  veiy  question  ;  and  secondly,  they  are  made 
from  a  careful  analysis  of  official  statistics. 

The  fruits  of  the  two  systems  also  exist  side  by  side  in  our 
own  country. 

There  are  with  us  five  and  a  half  millions  of  foreign-born 
inhabitants,  the  greater  portion  of  whom  came  from  courtries 
as  Ireland  and  England  for  example,  that  have  had  the  paro- 
chial or  church  system  of  schools  ;  hence  they  may  justly  be 
taken  intellectually  and  morally  as  the  fair  average  product  of 
that  method  of  education. 

sOf  these  the  illiterates  above  the  age  of  ten,  are  fourteen  per 
cent.  (.14)  of  the  whole  number;  ike  paupers  are  four  and  one 
tenth  per  cent.  (041),  and  the  criminate  one  and  six-tenths 
per  cent.  (.016.) 

While  on  the  other  hand;  in  the  twenty-one  of  our  States 
having  the  American  system  of  non-sectarian  free  public  schools 
there  is  a  native  population  of  twenty  millions.  This  native 
population  has  been  educated  in  this  system  of  schools,  and  in 


11 

iier  may  be  justly  taken,  intellectually  and  morally,  as  the 
age  product  of  this  method  of  education. 
Of  these,  the  illiterates  above  the  age  of  ten  are  only  three 
-half  per  cent.  (.035)  of  the  whole  number  ;  the  paupers 
one  and  seven-tenths  per  cent.  (.017),  and  the  criminals 
only  three-fourths  of  one  per  cent.  (.0075). 

In  other  words,  from  every  ten  thousand  (10,000)  inhabitants 
the  parochial  or  church  system  of  education  turns  out  fourteen 
iulre:l  (1,400)  illiterates,  four  hundred  and  ten  (410)  paupers, 
and  on<-  hundred  and  sixty  (160)  criminals ;  while  the  non- 
i  free  public  school  system  turns  out  only  three  hun- 
l  fifty  (350)  illiterates,  one  hundred  and  seventy  (170) 
pimp*-!-  .  and  seventy-five  (75)  criminals.     Or  if  we  take  Massa- 
chuset.--  by  itself,  which  has  the  type  or  model  of  our  free 
•hool  system,  with  its  1,104,032  native  inhabitants,  the 
is  still  less,  viz.,  seventy  one  (71)  illiterates,  forty-nine 
vipers,  and  eleven  (11)  criminals. 


Illiterates.  Paupers.  Criminals.    Inhabitants. 

school  system 1,400  410  160  to  the  10,000 

>ol  system  in  21  State? 350  170  75       "       10,000 

ool  system  in  Massachusetts.          71  40  11       "       1<>,000 


s,  we  are  asked  by  these  friends  who  have  come  here 
ed  us,  and  whose  zeal  and  energy,  if  rightly  directed, 
f  great  service  both  to  themselves  and  the  country,  to 

abolish  our  own  well-tried  system  of  education  and  adopt  the 
hich  they,  in  their  former  homes,  became  accustomed, 
hat  one,  on  the  average,  produces  four  times  as  many 
s,  two  and  a  half  times  as  many  paupers,  and  more 

han  (i.rice  as  many  criminals  as  ours.     Or  if  we  take  Massa- 
as  a  fair  sample  of  our  system,  we  are  asked  to  adopt 
will  give  society  twenty  times  as  many  illiterates,  eight 
many  paupers,  and  fourteen  times  as  many  criminals, 
.innot   do  this,    and  when  they   come  to  understand 
ily  the  facts  they   will  not  wish  us  to  do  it ,  for  the 
•f  their  children  is  just  as  dear  to  them  as  that  of  ours 
us,  and  they,  equally  with  us,  desire  to  diminish  ignor- 
ee,  pauperism  and  crime,  and  to  make  the  country  of  their 

idoptioT]  and  the  home  of  their  descendants  intelligent,  pros- 
)owerful  and  happy. 


The  whole  future  of  our  country  and  the  very  exist 
our  free  government  is  wrapped  up  in  the  common 
Promote  and  develope  that,  and  every  department  of  i 
and  intelligence  will  flourish  like  a  tree  well  water 
nourished  at  its  roots.  Destroy  the  common  school,  and  i 
ance,  poverty,  despotism  and  bigotry  will  soon  perv; 
whole  land. 

Generalizations   drawn    like   the   above    from    the    ol 
statistics  of  twenty-five  millions  of  people  are  unerring  gi 
They  settle  the  question  as  to  the  comparative  excellent 
the  two  systems  of  education.    They  are  intellectual,  indus 
and  moral  beacons,  that  direct  with  certainty  and  sa 
statesman  and  the  philanthropist.     They  point  out  win/ 1 
to  the  legislator  the  duty  of  enacting  a  law  requiring  atit 
upon  schoolst  during  the  school  age  and  the  school  terms,  of 
children  in  the  State,  unless  legally  and  for  good  and  sul 
reasons  temporarily  excused. 

The  preservation  of  free  government  requires  this.     l'rot< 
tion  of  society  against  pauperism  and  crime  demand  it. 
material  developement  of  our  country  calls  for  it.     The  sin 
and  happiness  in  life  of  the  children  of  the  poor,  the  ign< 
and  the  vicious  can  be  secured  only  by  such  a  statute. 

Your  committee  recommend  the  passage  of  the   follow 
resolution  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Legislature  should  enact  a  law  auth< 
ing  and  empowering  the  school  boards  in  each  city,  town 
incorporated  village  to  require  the  attendance  at  some 
public  or  private,  during  the  school  terms  and  the  school 
of  each  day,  of  all  children  between  the   ages   of   eight 
fifteen  years,  unless  for  good  and  sufficient  reason  tempo 
excused. 

New  York  Dec.  30,  1873. 

DEXTEE  A.  HAWKINS 

of  Committee  on  Education  of  the  New 
Council  of  Political  Reform. 


13 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Council,  held  at  their  rooms,  No.  48 
East  Twenty-third  street,  on  December  30,  1873,  the  foregoing 
Eeport  and  Resolution  were  accepted,  adopted  and  ordered 
printed,  and  the  thanks  of  the  Council  were  presented  to  the 
Chairman  of  the  Committee. 

H.  N.  BEERS, 

Secretary  of  the  New  York  Council  of  Political  Reform. 


WM.  H.  NEILSOX,  President. 
THEODORE  W.  DWIGHT,   Vice- President. 


A.  R.  WETMORE, 
WM.  F.  HAVEMEYER, 
D.  WILLIS  JAMES, 
HENRY  NICOLL, 
DEXTER  A.  HAWKINS, 
ALFRED  C.  POST,  M.  D., 
JOHN  STEPHENSON, 
THOMAS  C.  ACTON, 
JOHN  FALCONER, 
J.  C.  HAVEMEYER, 
ROBERT  HOE, 
GEO.  HEXCKEN,  Jr., 
S.  D.  MOULTON, 
JACKSON  S.  SCHULTZ, 
JOHN  P.  CROSBY, 
JOSEPH  C.  JACKSON, 
C.  E.  DETMOLD, 
FREDERICK  SCHACK, 
CHARLES  WATROUS, 
JULIUS  W.  TIEMANN, 
JOHN  R.  VOORHIS, 
JOSEPH  B.  VARNUM, 


H,  N,  BEERS,  Secretary, 


DORMAN  B.  EATON, 
JAMES  EMOTT, 
HENRY  J.  SCUDDER, 
D.  D.  WRIGHT, 
HUGH  TAYLOR, 
S.  B.  H.  VANCE, 
THOS.  L.  THORNELL, 
HIRAM  MERRITT, 
J.  C.  SANDERS, 
WM.  GARDNER, 
WRIGHT  GILLIES, 
ALONZO  J.  CHADSEY, 
J.  P.  HUGGINS, 
PHILLIP  BISSINGER, 
JONATHAN  STURGES, 
GEO.  W.   LANE, 
HENRY  TICK,. 
HENRY  CLAUSEN,  Jr., 
ALLEN  HAY, 
EDWARD  SALOMON, 
B.  B.  SHERMAN, 
JOSEPH  H.  CHOATE. 


HEXRY  CLEWS,   Treasurer. 


M.  D., 


THIS 


OVERDUE. 


> 


.7  Jun'SSKF 


fM 


f?Y 


A 


.7 '39  (402s) 


